Election Day

The long campaign is finally over. We can all breathe a sigh of relief'; no more TV or radio ads, no more signs littering our roads and highways, and no more annoying phone calls (at least from the political parties). Best of all, no more negative, less than truthful accusations flying across the airwaves.
It's a drizzly day. The lines were not horribly long at the polling place. It feels good to do one's civic duty.
It's a good day to knit. I have several WIPs to choose from.
I won a $25 gift certificate from Hampton Bay Yarns for my orange Monkey socks entry in the September Sockdown in the Sockknitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. It's very exciting. I never win anything. Maybe it's a good week to try the lottery.
Here are the socks. The yarn is Katia Caricia, a 100% merino sock weight yarn I bought in Madrid in June. It's soft and the socks are very comfortable.

Mimi

It's been a week since we had to say good-bye to Mimi. Mimi was a character, a unique cat. She developed a blood clot on her spine and could no longer walk. Mimi was the boss, or she thought she was. At less than 8 lbs. she stood up to our 88 lb. German Shepherd and won the battle of wits. Everyone knew when she was hungry, when she wanted to go outside or when she just wanted attention. I miss her.

Yes, here is is August and I am finally getting around to posting the journal I kept on my trip. I have edited a bit but for the most part these are the entries I wrote each night I was in Madrid. I miss Spain very much.

I was taking classes at Elemadrid in the attempt to improve my Spanish. One of my goals is to finally, FINALLY become fluent in the language.

June 7, 2008,

I’m sitting in Newark International Airport for an 8 hour, yes 8 hour layover. Internet connection costs money and being the cheapskate I am I have elected not to connect. Sigh.

I had a sandwich from an “Italian” place and shared a table with a friendly talkative computer geek who was flying to the UK for business. It was a nice break in the time. It’s now 6:26 p.m. My flight takes off at 10 p.m.

June 9, 2008

I did not write yesterday. They plane was delayed over an hour at Newark due to thunderstorms. We were already on the plane when they announced that. But we arrived in Madrid around 12:15 p.m. After getting my passport stamped and getting my suitcase I found an ATM so I could have some euros to pay for a taxi into the city. The taxi driver was friendly and I even carried on a little conversation with him. Crazy Americana. There was a bit of a problem getting hold of the landlady for the apartment where I am staying but I finally found her. The apartment is tiny but clean. There is an itsy bitsy balcony which overlooks the patios of the ground floor apartments and the pool. It doesn't look like I'll have much of a chance of ever using the pool as the temperature for these two days has not gotten out of the 50’s and this morning I awoke to the sound of rain. I walked through the wet chilly streets of Madrid this morning in a t-shirt and capris. Crazy Americana.

School is okay. There are only two of us in my classes. They other guy is a businessman from Finland. I think he said his company makes snowmobiles. He’s nice enough but will not be someone I can hang out with. It may be a long 3 weeks but I’ll survive.

June 10, 2008

The classes went better today. Most of the jet lag fog had lifted and I understood a lot more. Because I am in a higher level class and because there are only two of us this year is more challenging. And that is a good thing.

After classes I started walking back to the apartment when the sky opened up and rain came, heavier and heavier until I finally ducked into the next metro station and took the train two stops. I went “home” and made myself some lunch and did my homework. I returned to school around 3:30 for a conference on Religion in Spain. It was taught by Javier who is excellent. After the conference I walked toward the apartment with no idea what I was really going to do. I ran into my classmate Teo. We talked, in Spanish of course, and walked. Then we parted and I went to the bookstore of Corte Ingles with the thought of looking for a book on the History of Spain. I found a few but after seeing their size I decided to wait until I get back to the states and order one. Then I went to the main Corte Ingles in search of a Post Office supposedly exists there. Instead I found their upscale Supermercado and a small natural foods section. I bought some food. But I still can’t find the post office.

Now I’m back in the apartment. It feels good to get away from the crowds of people. There’s only so much mob scene I can take before I near meltdown. Now I’m gorging myself on crackers and goat cheese. Time to find the fruit and vegetables.

There’s a threatened strike by truckers here because of the high price of gas. It has caused a rush on the supermarkets and gas stations out of fear that there will be a short supply.

June 11, 2008

It was another rough conversation class. I do pretty well in grammar, it’s the speaking and understanding that comes slow. Sure, I can put together a sentence but the person to whom I am speaking will fall asleep before I figure out the vocabulary, select the right verb and conjugate it in the proper tense, remember to make nouns and their adjectives agree in number and gender and make sure I am using the right object pronouns in the right place. I guess that’s why I’m here. To my credit I have become a bit bolder than last year. I bought some tweezers today in a small pharmacy/health shop. We won’t mention how much they cost. I bought my dinner at Maoz this evening (I couldn’t face any more goat cheese, I OD’d last night) and ordered in español. And it’s only the third day. I was into the second week last year before I would open my mouth in public.

The young woman who is my grammar teacher is Arantxa, she was one of my teachers last year. She is very good. My conversation teacher is Maria. She’s very nice, animated and helpful. She’s marrying an American and is very excited.

Madrid

I arrived in Madrid on Sunday after a long and fairly uneventful flight, except for the thunder storm in Newark which delayed our flight over an hour after we were already on the plane.
When I left Virginia on Saturday the temperature was in the upper 90's. The temperature in Madrid: the mid 50's with a chilly drizzle. The rain continued off and on until yesterday, Wednesday. The seasoned traveler that I am only packed for a hot summer in Madrid, not a damp, windy, cold totally out of character Madrid. Monday I bought a sweater.
I have a tiny, but cute apartment three blocks from Puerta de Sol. It has been a comfortable refuge from the rain.
The truckers in Spain have been picketing and threatening to strike on Monday. There has been a run on the supermercados (supermarkets) and food is getting a little scarce. It's just part of the experience.
Tomorrow I will hopefully post some pictures I have taken to far.
But right now I'm going to head to the supermercado.

Packing

On Saturday, that's two days from now, I leave for Madrid. I should be packing, I should be doing laundry, vacuuming and running around crying "I have so much to do, I have so much to do." Instead I sit here at the computer posting a comment on my blog.
I will be in Madrid for three weeks, all by myself. Okay, there are 4.5 million other people in the city but I will be there without husband, friend or family. I'm going to improve my Spanish, to get beyond the grammar and book Spanish and really learn to speak and understand it. Besides, Ilove Spain. This will be my third visit.
Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of the city and its yarn shops.

This is my first attempt at blogging. It's rather scarey for a 50 something grandmother who only uses the computer for e-mail and reading the news. Whenever something goes wrong I run to my 21 year old son. Yesterday my cute little laptop went dark, it wouldn't turn on, no response. "Oh crap it's crashed. What will I do? No e-mail, no Ravelry, no wasting hours of my day reading blogs and searching for knitting patterns. What am I going to do?" Panic. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I called my son, who by some miracle was home at the time. "Adam, my computer crashed!" I calmly yelled, fighting back fear and tears. He sat down at my desk, tried to turn on the power button, glanced to the side of the machine and pushed the power cord back into its place. The cord had come loose, I had drained the battery and the computer wouldn't work. He pushed the power button again and the screen lit up.
I'm still trying to understand how to set up this blog. When I do I'll post the pictures of all my WIPs.
Next weekend I leave for 3 weeks in Spain followed by 8 days in Italy. In Spain I will be going to school trying to move closer to the elusive goal of fluency in Spanish. It's my third trip to Spain. I love the country and its language. After three weeks my husband will join me in Madrid for few days then we will fly to Rome, rent a car and drive to Tuscany. Part of my reason for starting this blog to post pictures of the trip.